The cucumber sandwiches may have been in short supply and many of the spectators ringing the boundary bemused US soldiers, but today a slice of English village green cricket was transported to the headquarters of the west's military mission in Afghanistan.

To roars of approval from a mixed crowd of foreigners and locals, a team from the Ditchling cricket club in Sussex were soundly thrashed by Afghanistan's national side, a squad of former refugees that is rapidly emerging as a power in international cricket.

After 25 overs each, Ditchling scored 138 for 7, while the Afghans, who this year came a hair's breadth from qualifying for the 2011 World Cup finals in South Africa, scored 262 for five.

The team captain, Jamie Theakston, the former Blue Peter presenter turned radio presenter, said it "seemed fair" to let the Afghans win on their home ground.

A scruffy football pitch surrounded by high concrete walls and razor wire had to make do for the afternoon's game inside the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force – the Nato military mission in Afghanistan.

But Rais Ahmadzai, an Afghan player who grew up in a refugee camp in Pakistan where he played cricket with bats he made himself out of planks, said it was "a historic day".

"It would have been nice if they could have played on our pitch, but the security it not good enough. This is the first time a British team has come to Afghanistan to play the Afghan team."

The improbable game was a rematch of one held in Ditchling in 2006, when the Afghan side was supposed to be playing Sussex county's second eleven, but ended up taking on the well-heeled denizens of a village which, in the words of Dominic Worral, the owner of the village pub and the tour's sponsor is "cricket and rugby mad".

The Afghans have spent the last year touring the world in their attempt to qualify for the World Cup, beating Ireland in South Africa, Nepal in Jersey and Papua New Guinea in Argentina.

By contrast, Ditchling's only international experience is a biannual contest against the MCC – the Minorca Cricket Club.

Not all the players from three years ago made it to the Afghan capital for the rematch after some wives and girlfriends objected to their partners going to such a risky destination for a game of cricket.

Security, laid on by the British embassy in Kabul, had been tight for the visit of a team that included a City banker, property developer and graphics designer.

For most of them it was the first time they have had to don flak jackets and travel in armoured vehicles.

Theakston said: "When we got off the plane in Kabul we were all rather behaving like a tour party and getting rather over excited. But when we were handed body armour and told what to do in case the vehicle was attacked, we all calmed down. It certainly focuses the mind."